01 Set Abdominal tuberculosis in a low-incidence country: a single centre experience on 13 patients invstigated with 18F-FDG PET/CT

Giacomo Vandi

AIM

To assess role of 18F-FDG PET in the diagnosis of abdominal tuberculosis (ATB).
MATERIALS AND METHODS: Clinical records, 18F-FDG PET/CT findings of patients diagnosed with ATB between January 2013 and January 2016 at Infectious Diseases Unit were retrospectively analyzed.
RESULTS:
289 pts were diagnosed with TB. Among them 23 had ATB. 13/23 underwent 18F-FDG PET and were included in the analysis.

Clinical characteristics: 7 women, 6 men; median age 39 years. 12 foreigners, 1 Italian, 2 HIV+. All pts had no past history of TB.

Common symptoms were: loss of body weight (12), abdominal pain (10), night sweats (7), fever (6); ascites (5), diarrhea (1).

Clinical requests for imaging were: differential diagnosis between cancer and TB.
Abdominal nodes were identified in 11 pts, peritoneal involvement in 9 pts, mimicking peritoneal carcinosis. Gastrointestinal-tract was affected in 2. Liver was involved in 1 pt. Extra-abdominal localizations were depicted 9 pts.
Based on PET findings, it was possible to perform focused biopsy in all patients that led to bacteriological TB confirmation in 10/13 pts and histological confirmation in 3/13
CONCLUSION:
ATB diagnosis is insidious for non-specific appearance mimicking malignant/other inflammatory diseases. PET seems to play an important role in ATB diagnosis, identifying the involved sites for focused biopsy. Larger studies are needed to confirm our observations.